JJCCR and wetsuit diving

[LanceRiley]

Hi i did my TDI Mod1 JJCCR course about a year ago... what bothered me the most was the trim.

I coudnt be trim. i was wearing a 3mm wetsuit. with a lightweight fin (recreational) and it would always attempt to pull me feet down. as in vertical. had to put about 3 lbs of weight on each shoulder strap to keep.. me more or less trim..

so how do you dive with wetsuit? i live in the Philippines..

 

[inquis]

Which configuration is your JJ in? Perhaps one of the other variants will trim better for you.

You might try a 5mm suit, as I have found I am less leg heavy as thickness increases. Obviously, your location precludes going much thicker.

 

[LanceRiley]

the JJ i was using was using alum 3L tanks. the bailout on my left .

 

[waves_221]

I use a 5mm suit, boots, and deep 6 eddys to help trim out my Meg with 3L aluminum oxy/dil and 5L or 11L aluminum bailouts.

 

[inquis]

If valves were down, then you might try valves up (and drill the new shutdown procedures).

 

[LanceRiley]

If valves were down, then you might try valves up (and drill the new shutdown procedures).

i suspect this could be the reason since valves are heavy are already behind my waist? but can i invert them? using the smaller 3L tanks? they would be on the wrong side

 

[inquis]

You would swap bottle positions, but run the gases from the normal sides. O2 clean the old dil bottle (if it's not already) and fill with O2. Swap the knobs if the old O2 one is green.

You might time this transition when the cylinders are down for visual inspections.

 

[bubblemonkey2]

Try a less dense fin, like the non-dense version of the Apeks RK3, and a buoyant bootie, like 5mm or even 7mm with a proper thick sole.

I once used a ScubaPro Go fin and just sized it up.

A carbon backplate lightens up the whole rig.

You could also try a 'travel stand' for minor improvement.

Finning technique can keep you trim for drills and deco.
If the deco is easy, over 30 minutes, and bottomless below, I don't mind just relaxing into where things want to be

 

[bubblemonkey2]

I don't recommend inverting the cylinders just for this, nor changing which side is your oxygen. The trim issue can be reduced enough on its own without reconfiguring the whole design.

If you're a large and strong person, maybe consider the 'heavy' manifolded twinset dil monster config, as championed by GUE. Otherwise definitely not.

 

[inquis]

nor changing which side is your oxygen

I do want to clarify that the gas positions remained unchanged in what I was suggesting.

Definitely agree with the recommendation to try the various easy adjustments first, although new fins likely cost more than flipping bottles. (I was also thinking light fins would have been tried sometime during in the last year, but clearly that's an assumption on my part.)